1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a handling device of a stocker, such as automatic warehouse or automatic part feeder, for temporary storage of articles, units, products etc. and supply thereof to a working or assembling station.
2. Related Background Art
An assembling apparatus is disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,863, corresponding to Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 60-56702.
Also an article feeding apparatus is disclosed for example in the U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 887,130 which is now U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,680, and 903,412, abandoned and refiled as Ser. No. 306,260, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,828, of the present applicant.
In these apparatus, for supplying parts, semi-assembled units or the like to an automatic assembling machine such as a robot, these articles are stored in a stocker and then taken out therefrom according to the demand of the assembling machine. The stocker is equipped with shelves on which are stored containers, called pallets or trays, for containing the articles. Various handling devices are available for storing said containers into the shelves or extracting the same from the shelves.
As an example of the handling device, Japanese Utility Model Publication Nos. 54-1750 and 54-1751 disclose an apparatus having storing shelves arranged in a matrix and a container carrier movable in vertical and horizontal directions in front of said shelves for automatic storage and extraction of the containers into and from the shelves. The apparatus comprises a container holding member provided on said container carrier movably between the ends thereof in a direction to and away from said shelves and having a smaller dimension in said moving direction. The apparatus includes a pair of container guide members provided on said container carrier, on both sides of said container holding member, wherein said container holding member is provided with a housing of a height lower than the upper face of said container guide members and an engaging member mounted at the rear end of said housing in the movable direction thereof for engagement with the container. The engaging member is movable between a higher position and a lower position with respect to the upper face of said container guide members.
Also, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No 61-206708 discloses a tray distributing apparatus comprising a tray storage unit, a transporter for storage or extraction of trays, and an elevator member, wherein said transporter comprises a hook member for supporting the tray and a chain for horizontally moving said hook member.